‘Richly harmonic explorations in just intonation, using a sparse but finely detailed palette of organic atmospheres, metallic shimmer and off-kilter rhythms. Sample-based hip-hop, the minimalism of Terry Riley and Jon Hassell, as well as dub techno and post-rock; all in the house. Glassy pads, gamelan metallophones, clarinet and guitar dissolve into fluid, dreamlike forms, suggesting vast coastal landscapes, charged air, the calm after a storm…’

Norway’s finest hardanger fiddle player, performing traditional tunes from her native valley Hallingdal.
Wonderful.

‘Oud-player with The Handover, Eissa was mentored by two legendary figures in Egyptian music: composer and multi-instrumentalist Abdo Dagher, and oud master Hazem Shahin. The music here is heavily rooted in both Egyptian classical music and a number of different folk music traditions, but it goes its own way, through expansive and intricate original compositions.
‘The epic title track, with Eissa playing oud exclusively, takes up two thirds of the album. It seamlessly transitions into heart-stopping recitation of the thirteenth century poet Baha´ al-din Zuhayr… serious, loving, tender and insistent, all at once. Visionary and virtuosic, but at the same time warm and close.
‘A future classic.’

‘Our long overdue return to the Chopper label, which we first reissued way back in 2010. This twelve song LP corrals all our favourites we haven’t previously revived. A mix of early ‘80s style live rhythms laid at Channel 1 and some great classical late ‘80s digital style. Lionel Barrett was the original and perhaps the core artist of the Chopper stable, and is featured heavily here. A few of his tracks as well as a couple of others here are now issued on vinyl for the first time. The remaining are retrieved from long out of press albums and singles. A great overview of a prolific JA-NYC label from dancehall’s best era.’

Over to Digikiller…
‘Howard ‘Sir Tommy’ Mapp is one of the original guard of New York sound men, playing sound system since 1974. Around a decade after that, he began producing for his newly formed label of the same name. Later in the 1990s he established his own studio, which became a hub of the city’s dancehall scene. In true independent fashion, Tommy covered nearly every aspect of the reggae business himself, like Wackie’s, Jah Life and Philip Smart. We’re proud to finally present the first reissue of the early gems in Tommy’s catalogue and make some more classic New York reggae accessible again. So what better to start with than a new compilation, 100% heaters, culled from long unavailable singles and albums. We cannot recommend this record enough, as Tommy’s early production output mainly falls in two of our most beloved categories — the mid ‘80s sound of Channel 1 as played by the Gifted Roots Band, and the late ‘80s early digital sound. This LP is packed with prime cuts of just such music. Absolutely essential stuff for 1980s reggae heads.’

Keith cut some sides for JA producers in the early ‘70s, before moving to New York. In the first half of the ‘80s, his Lovebird label released mostly his own productions, like Honey Bee Fantasy… slow-burning, mid-eighties boogie, nervy with a delicious outsider wrongness. None other than Charles Earland plays keys; Canadian singer Ann Marie handles backing vocals.
AM bounces back on the PM, fronting the first incarnation of the Roots Radics, including Blacka and Bingy Bunny from the Morwells. Sweetly fragile, tentative singing over a dreadnought rhythm.
Painstakingly sleeved as per the original.

‘Previously unreleased recordings made over several nights of the Wailers’ West London residency in June 1976, during their Rastaman Vibration tour. Highlights include a transcendent version of Roots, Rock, Reggae, a rarely-performed Bend Down Low, an extended version of Crazy Baldhead, and a thirty-minute encore that incorporates a twelve-minute Get Up, Stand Up.’

‘As deeply rooted in soul’s past as you’d expect, but it never feels self-consciously retro… strikingly raw, racked with very real emotion’ (The Guardian).

‘By turns gleeful, sensitive, urgent and ruminative, this is a brilliant set that plays to the trio’s formidable strengths… Hearteningly delightful contemporary music-making’ (The Guardian).
‘A spare, de-cluttered, étude-like qualitymusic of sometimes unassuming but penetrating emotion and structural focus… full of the detail given to artists with powers of judgment to match the command of their instruments’ (Jazzwise).

Full-on, sex-hungry, hard-grooving, rock-steady, into-the-future electric blues.
Check out Muddy dancing in his last minute on stage. Otis Spann led the closer — torch-carrying verses by Langston Hughes — because the boss was so knackered.
Look at all the people laughing, shouting out, swaying in their deck-chairs… and wonder about Dylan causing such a cataclysmic stink five long years later, on the same stage, going electric the same way (on the same type of Telecaster).